Mine trap-door and operating mechanism therefor.



@EQT AVAILABLE CGP PATENTED JUNE 14, 1904.

A. T. FLINT & I. WHITNEY.

MINE TRAP DOOR A ND' OPERATING MECHANISM THEREFOR.

APILIOATION FILED JUNE lZJQOB. no MODEL. 4 a SHEETSSHEET 1 jzz mba BESTAVAYLABLE COP I PATENTED JUNE 14, 1904.

A. T.- FLINT & I. WHITNEY.. MINE TRAP DOOR AND OPERATING MECHANISMTHEREFOR.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 12,1903.

NO MODEL. 3.8HEETS-SHIIET 2 BEST AVNLABLE COP MINE TRAP D00 APPLICATIONFILED JUNE 12,1903.

N0 MODEL,

, PATENTED JUNE 14, 1904. A. T. FLINT &'I. WHITNEY. R AND OPERATINGMECHANISM THEREFOR.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

1 .filargolm UNIT D STATE-S l BEST Ami AsL coP:

Fatenteu. June 14, 1904.

PATENT '1 MINE TRAP-coon AND OPERATING; ME H-Amsm THEREFOR.

Application filed June 12, 1903;

and, ,iShtAC n.rrNr.Y, citizens of the United States, residing atOslcaloosa, in the county of Mahaska and Stateof Iowa, have invented anew and useful Mine Trap- Door and Operating Mechanism 'lherefor, ofwhich the following is a specification. A

jhisfinvention relates to mine tiiap-iloors and operatingmechanismtherefor. v

,The object of the invention is to providea perfectly air -tightdoo'rfor coal or other mines i that may be easily operated"by'hand or bystruct'the( loor in such manner that it will not beprevented fromopening or closing by coal scribed mcans'of operating devices, ashereinafter de- A further object of the invention is to con orotherobjects'which may lie on the track adjacent to the door.

the seetion'sor leaves of the door in snch.m'ann '*'r' that the(loor'will not be opened by wmd pressure and so that the opening orclosing of'the door willnot be prevented by the ac tion of wind thereon.

,Othcr objects of the invention are to provide means for holding thedoor in open or closed position and yetmal e-the opening'or closing ofthe door a matter of little difiienlty; to construct the door 'in suchmanner as to makeitperfectly safe for the passageof trains,

animals, or persons therethrougl 1', and, finally, topro vide mechanismfor opening mine-doors with aminimmn of shock and jar and forautomatically closing the. door after the passage of cars, draft-animals, orpersons.

In theattainment of theobjects above stated we make use of the novelconstruct on and combination of parts of a mine-door and op- (ratingmechanism therefor hereinafter more fnlly described, illustrated in theaccompany- Another object of theinv ention is to arrange opening orclosing of the door.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No; 762,696, qata J1me14,'.1904.-

therefor. Fig. 2 is a view in elevation of the door show'n in Fig. 1,;together .with the de: .vices for closing the doora Fig-3'is a'plah viewof a door of the type illustrated in Figs.

- 1 and 2, b utjwith a modified form ofoper'at- Fig. 7 is a detailviewin, plan' ofv a modified -form of door. and doer-closing mechanism.

Fig. 8 ifsfa plan view of the door with another modified form of-closmgmechanism. 1.

I Referring to the drawings by reference char-j actcrs, 1 1 designatethe rails of a traclr of the ordinary type leading out of a mine sha ftand laid upon cross-ties 2 of ordinary construction.

3 designates a door-sill made ofany suitable material and presenting onthe 'upper surface apair of oppositely-disposed inclines, as shown,-topr'eventthe accumulation on the surface of the sill of small lumps ofcoal .or other rubbish which might interfere with the As shown in Fig.4', the sill 3 is formed, preferably, of aplate of iron bent on themedian longitudinal line-and secured to two of the cross-ties by spikesor other suitable means. At either end of the sill 3 is mounted arotatable standard 4, and to.each of the standards 4 is' seenrcd one ofthe leaves ofthe door. One of the leaves, 5, ismade, preferably, oflarger size than the other leaf, 6, and the larger leaf 5 comprises amain section 5; and a small section 5 ",connectcd by springhinges, whichnormally hold the two sections in alinement. ut

which permit them to be thrown out of 2: J10.- ment by swinging thesmaller section in either.

direction, upon itsihinges. The main section v 5 of the leaf 5 issecured to one of the pivotal standards .4 at points preferably nearlymidwaybetween the vertical-sides of the section, for reasons. that willhereinafter appear. 1 The small.sectionj5"of leaf 5 is provided atitsfree marginwitb astripof fiexiblcgnmterial 5 to overlapanother strip offlexible material (5"; secured to the smaller door-leaf-G. Their-at 6 ishinged to one of the pivoted standards 4 by means of spring-hinges whichhave springs of sufiicient stiffness to hold the leaf 6 normally in oneposition, but which will permit the leaf to swing in either directionupon its hinges when the pivotal standard is held stationary andpressure is applied to the leaf. The strip 6' of flexible material,above mentionedas secured to the leaf 6, is possessed of some stiffness,so that when the strips of material at the free margins of thedoor-leaves overlap the wind-pressure'will not open them backward toeliect a passage between the d oorleaves.

. position of closure regardless of any obstruction of ordinary size.

A weather-stri of the form shown at the .bottom of the hinge-section atthe lower margin of the doors may be'placcd at the top and sides of thedoor-sections, if necessary, to completely exclude air.

One objectof making the door-leaves in sections of different sizes andarranging the sections as above explained is to prevent the variation ofthe wind-pressure against the door from in any way interfering with theopening or closing thereof. It will have been noted that of the mainsection 5 of the larger door-leaf 5 a considerable portion lies upon oneside of the pivotal standard, on which the leaf is mounted, and theremainder lies on the opposite side. The small leaf 6 is of such widththat its area about equals the differencein area between the twoportions of door-leaf 5, which lie on opposite sides of the pivotalstandard, to which the leaf 5 is attached. By means of operating devicesto be hereinafter described the door-leaves 5 and 6 are simultaneouslyopened in opposite directions and are so connected that whenever oneleaf is opened by means of the operating devices the other leaf must ofnecessity swing in the opposite direction. in consequence of thisarrangement the pressure of the wind upon one leaf of the door whichtends to open it is balanced by the pressure of the wind on the otherleaf to close it. Another reason for making the leaf 6 considerablynarrower than the leaf 5 is to cause the leaf 6, which swings toward thea 'iproaching caror ,liaftanima'l when the door is opened to swingentirely out of the BEST AVAlLABLE COP.

animal reaches the door, it is sometimes desirable to provide means forswinging the leaf 6 at a more rapid rate of angular movement than theleaf 5, and the means whereby this is accomplished will presently b2.explained.

In the preferred form of operating mechrigidly secured to the standards4, the pulley 8, which comprises aplurality of sheaves, all of which arerigidly connected, being provided on the standard supporting the leafand the pulley 9, comprising a singlr sheave, being attached to thestandard supporting the leaf 6. On the same side of the track as thepulley 8 are provided two posts or standards 10, eachof which has at thetop thereof a pulley 11. Passing around the pulleys 11 and the pulley 8,as shown in Fig. l, are ropes or cables 12, each of which is providedwith a tension-link 13, by means of which the tension of the pulleys orcables maybe adjusted. The rope or cable 14, also provided withtension-links 13, passes around one of the sheaves of the pulley 8 andaround pulley 9, so connecting the pulleys 8 and 5) that any movement ofone will be communicated to the other and impart to it an equal amountof angular movement in the opposite direction. Attached to the standards10, which are pivotally supported in suitable bearings, are operwhich iscspeciallydesigncd to be engaged by a draft-animal hauling a train ofcars, is provided with curved projections 15-and 15", to which isattached a strap 15", placed, as shown, upon theside of the arm 15 whichis directed toward the approaching car or draft-animal. The projections15 and 15" are of resilient character and together with the strap 15"form a yielding cushion against which the animal may strike withoutinjury even when going at a tolerably rapid rate.

While it is intended that the arm 15 will be engaged ordinarily by adraft-animal, it is obvious that it may be engaged by a minecar andoperated equally as well, the yielding projections and strapscrvinginthe same way to take up the shock of contact and operating the door witha minimum of jar.

The standard 10, which lies on the outer side of the door, has attachedthereto the op crating-arm 16, which is designed to be engaged by amine-car, and hence is differently constructed from the arm 15, alreadydel scribed. The arm 16 is composed merely of a bowed member ofresilient material, which i extends only partly across the track andwhich presents a convexity to an approaching car.

i It will be readily understood from theforei going description and froman inspection of l I tanimal or car approaching the door the leaf 1 6will be swung toward the approaching car anism for the door-leavespulleys 8 and 9 are ating-arms 15 and 16. The operating-arm 15,

i or draft-animal and the leaf will be swung in the opposite direction.The door. when (men-red may be held open by suitable devices providedespecially for that purpose and coins prising in the preferred form ofthe invention a pair of spring-catches 17, mounted at the side of thetrack in position to engage the leaf?) when swung open in eitherdirection. 'Lhe spring-catches 17 are unnecessary except when theoperating-arms 15 and 16 are placed at a considerable distance from thedoor, .for when the operating-arms are nearthe door tl'ic 'passage ofthe operating-arms along the side of the car or draft-animal will keepthe door open until the cai"or draft-animal has passed through it; butwhen the operatingarrns are at a considerable distance from the door, ifno' means he proyidedto engage thedoor-leaves and hold them openafter'the, action of the operating-arms in, opening, the

- leaves, the leaves will be swung to closed poare n ear'the doors Thecatches 17 are so proportioned that the end of-each e'atch -pro ectsinto the path of the cars just far enough to be engaged by the front carof a. train and thrown out of operative engage ment with the edge ofdoor-leaf After one'of the latches 17 is thrown out of operativeengagement with the edge of doorlcaf 5 by engagement of the front car ofa train with the latch the'door-leaf 5 will be held opcnby the'passingcars until the last C ro; the train has passed, and then the doorleafwill be allowed to swing into its normal closed position under theaction of the closing mechanism' The preferred .form of closing meanscomprises rope 18, attached to the outer margin of section 5-ofuloor-loaf. 5, between guide-rolls 19 over pulley 20 and havingattached to thefree end thcreof a weight 21, which is justheavyienoughto close the door gradually and without shock. in order tofacilitate the opening of the door in case the operating mechanismhereinhefore-deseribed should fail to work for any reason, bows 2-2, ofresilient materiahare attached to the leaf 5 on either side, as shown inFig. l, and these bows keep the leaf outofe contact with the car-or.lraft-animal and open thedoor directly without anygrcat degree of asstated.

'shock' when the operating devices fail to act lnthe form ofemhodimentof the invention erating mechanism is thesame.

illustrated in Fig. 3 instead of the arms 15 and 16, asaboue described,we employ operat ih'g-arms 23;each comprising a rigid member 23 and aresilient curved member 2?)". The arms23 areattached to the siarnlards10; but instead of the-pulleys 11 and the ropes 7 12 toconstituteconnections bctween. the standards 10 and thekdoor-leaf 5 links orconnecting-rods 24 are pivoted to the rigid members 23 of theoperating-arms and to springs 25, attached to the main section 5" of thedoorleaf 5, and in order to facilitate the-closing of the doors for thepassage of a carrordraftanimal a spring 26 is attached to'the supportof-on'e of the vstam'lards 10 in such position that one end thereof.will be engagedby the operating-arm 23 whenever the djor; is opened toits full extent. Assoon as the car or draftanimal pass'esthrough thedoor the elasticity of the spring 26 tends tothrow the operatinglever23,l ackto its, normal position, thus 5 closing the door. In this formof embodi: ment of the invention the operating arms 22 do notextend,entirelyacross the track as doesthe operating-arm 15inthepreferred form of the invention; Hence in order to 9 prevent the,draft-animal from sliding off the track, and thus avoidingcontact withone of the operating-arms, curvedguide-rodS27 are supported at the sideof the track opposite the arms 23, thus making it impossible forthc'animal to avoid contact withthc arm:

. Another modification of the operating mechanism is illustrated in Fig,6,,in which" the opcrating-armis supported upon a hori-- zontal insteadof a vertical-shaft. 'ihe hori- I00 zontal shaft .28 extends acrossthetrack at such height. that a draft-animal may pass readily under it,and extending downward from the shaft is an operating-arm 29, of re-Isilient material, which is adapted to be en- 5 gaged by the front endof a car or by aprojecting pin mountedeither'on some portion of theharness of the draft-animal or upon the car itself. The variouspositions of the pin are designated at 30 and 31 in dotted lines.

When a horizontally-disposed shaft is used; pulleys 32, disposed in avertical plane take the place of pulleys 11, used in the preferred formof the invention; but otherwise the op' .1 1 5 A modified form ofclosing mechanism is illustrated in Fig.7, in which the door is shown ascomposed'of similar leaves 35, each comprising a main-section 35 and asmaller sectioni35'f, similar. to the sections 5 and 5" on the largeleaf 5 in the preferred form of door. i Each of the leaves 35 hasprojecting from the outer margin thereof a short arm 36', .to which isattached a cord or rope 37, which passes between guide-rolls 38-,suitably sup 5 ported at the side of v the track, then crossesthctrackand passes over the-pulley 30'; ."lhc cords 37 are attached to.pivot-pins"4 provided on the upper edges of sections 35"o-f lIlN,leaves 35, and have attached at their free ends 3 The operatingnr.,,-hanism employed with 5 the form of door and closing devices ustde' 5 scribed may be of any of the forms already described, and separatedescription thereof is therefore regarded as mnuicessacv.

\Vhen it is desired to cause the leaf 6 of the door to more open morerapidly than the T larger leaf 5, the pulleys 8 and 9 are not made i ofthe same diameter, as shown in Fig. i, but of different diameters, as wil be obvious, the pulleyf) being smaller than the pulley 8, so that whendew-deaf is swung with its supporting-standard and the pulley 8 turnstherewith the pulley 9, from which motion is imparted to the door-leaf(i, will be caused to move through a greater angle, thus insuring thecomplete opening of the leaf (3 before the arrival of the d raft-animalor car at the door.

lt will be readily observed from the fore- .going description that thedoor can be opened with very slight effort, only suliicient effort beingrequired to overcome the inertia of the structure and to raise the.weight which serves to close the door. It will also he noted that owingto the resiliency of the operating-ievers the door will be openedwithout an appreciable amount of jar and that it will open and closereadily in strong drafts from any direction, as the action of the. windupon one leaf of the door is counterbalanced by the action upon theother.

While it has been assumed in the description of the door and theoperating mechanism therefor that it will be preferred to have thedoor-sections swing in opposite directions in order to have the actionof-the wind upon one portion of thedoor coum-erbalanced by its actionupon the other, it is obvious that by crossing the rope connecting thepulleys 8 and 9 both sections may be caused to open in the samedirection.

\Vhile the door and operating mechanism have been described andillustrated in the various preferred forms of embodiment of theinvention, it i., obvious that certain clanges may be made in the formand proporl ions of the parts and in their exact mode of assemblagewithout departing from the spu-it,of

the invention orsacrilicing any of i s advantages, and we do not desireto be limited in the forms shown, but re. erve the right to make suchchanges therein as lie within the scope of the appended claims.

While the spring-catches for holding doorleaf 5 in open position havebeen shown only in connection with one form of door-opening mechanism,it is to be understood that said catches maybe employed with any one ofthe I several types of door-opening devices shown I I l l BEST AVAlLABLEGOP.

and described. It is also to be umlerstood that the various forms ofdoor-closing devices disclosed may be used inwrchangealily with outregard to the character of the door-opening devices, each type ofdoor-opening means being adapted for use with any one of the forms ofdoor-closing devices disclosed.

Having thus described the construction and operation of our invention,what. we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. in amine-door, the combination with a pair of pivotal supports, ofdoor-leaves car ried by said supports, one of said door-leavescomprising a section rigidly secured to the support, and a sectionconnected with said rigidly-attached section by means of spring hinges,said rigidly-attached section being secured to the support intermediateof its edges and the other door-leaf being attached to its pivotalsupport by means of spring-hinges and comprising a single section only.

2. In a mine-door, the combination of two pivotally-mounted do0r-leavesof different widths, connections between saiddoor-leaves whereby themovement of either leaf in one direction will cause the oppositemovementof the other leaf, and operating devices adapted to swing thewider door-section away from an amiroachmg Objlt'iil.

3. ln amine-door, the comlnnation with two pivoted leaves each having onthe inne-fimargin thereof a llexible strip and said flexible stri psbeing adapted to overlap, of connections between said door-leaveswhereby the'movement of either leaf will produce a simultaneous andopposite movement of the other.

-t. In a mine-door, the combination with a pair of pivotal standards, ofdoor-leaves of different widths rigidly attached to said standards, apulley rigidly secured t0 eaeh of said standards, a rope traveling oversaid pulleys and so arranged that the movement of either leaf willprmluce anopposite movement of i the other, and means operated by a bodyap preaching the. door to swing the door-leaf of greater width in thedirection of movement of the approaching body.

In a mine-door, the combination with a pair of pivotal standards, ofdoor-leaves rig-' idly attached to said standards, pulleysofdiffcrentsizes rigidly secured one on each standard, a rope running over saidpulleys and forming means whereby themovement of one of said leaves willproducean opposite move mentat a different rate of speed in the otherleaf, and means operated by a body approaching the door for swinging theslow-moving door-leaf in the direction of movement of the approachingbody.

6. The combination with a mine-door comprising swinging door-leaves, ofopeniugdevices comprising resilient levers disposed across the path ofan approachingobject,connections between said lnembersarnl oneofsaiddoor-leaves, and connections between the doorleaves whereby the movementof one leaf will be. accompanied by a simultaneous movement of theother.

a '7. The combination witha mine-door comprising pivoted door-leaves, ofresilient opening-levers disposed in the path of objects approachingsaid door, springs attached to one of said door-leaves, rigidconnections between IQ said springs and said levers, and connectionsbetween said door-leaves whereby the move ment of one will produce a,sin iultaneous movement of the other.

' 8. (the combination with a mine-door com- !5 prising a swingingdoor-leaf, of an opening lever disposed transversely of the path ofobjects approaching the door, a spring attached to the door-leaf, and arod connecting said lever and said spring 9. The combination with amine-door comprising a-'- swinging doorI-leaf, of a pivoted leverarranged in the path of objects approaching the door, a spring mountedon said doorleaf, and a rigid member pivotally connected with saidspring and with said lever.

' 10. The combination with a 1nine-door comprising a swinging leaf, ofoperating devices actuated by objects approaching the door to open thesame, and spring-catches arranged s in position to engage the free edgeof thedoor when open to its. fullest extent, said catches havingextensions disposed in the path of objects moving away from the doorwhereby said catches may be released after the passage I of objectsthrough the door.

11. The combinationwith a mine-door comprising a swinging leaf,ofmechanism actuated by ob ects approaching the door to open the same, aspring-catch arranged in position to beengaged by the free edgcof thedoor when open to its fullest extentand a spring disposed adjacent tosaid spring-catch to close the door when released from engagement withthe catch.

12. The combination with a mine-door disposed across a track, ofoperating devices com nections between said operating-lever and saidswinging leaf. v

14. The combination with a mine-door comseer AvAaAsLE con prising aswinging leaf, of an operating-lever disposed in the path of objectsapproaching said door, connections between said lever and said swingingleaffand a spring supported in such position that the operating-leverwill contact therewith when the dooris fully open and be returned to itsnormal position after the passage of an object through the door by theaction of said spring. Y

In testimony that AVE, claim the foregoing as our-own we have heretoafiixed our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

NEWTON Cox, JOHN Mosnmn

